CYCLONES OP THE WESTERN PACIFIC. 343 



should be found to have little, if any, control or influence as regards the regular courses and 

 developments of the cyclones. This may show the predominancy of cosmical laws and 

 influences over the apparently opposing conditions which are so extensively presented by these 

 alternating winds. 



The extent of the westerly monsoons, parallel to and on both sides of the equator, appears to 

 be far greater than has been recognized by most writers. In the northern hemisphere these 

 counter winds of the true trades extend from the east coast of Africa, near longitude 45° E., to 

 at least longitude 175° E., in the central Pacific. The proper trade wind appears to consist of 

 a comparatively thin stratum of aerial current moving upon the ocean surface, and is distin- 

 guished by its inclination towards the equator. On this stratum there is ordinarily imposed 

 another current, probably of greater depth and volume, into which the trade wind ultimately 

 merges, and which also moves westward while in the trade-wind latitudes, but generally 

 inclines from the equator, as is shown by the rain clouds and squalls which it carries, and by 

 the direction of translation imparted to the cyclones which it embodies. This important wind- 

 current, so little recognized by most writers, frequently alternates with, or displaces, the true 

 trades ; and still more frequently it replaces the westerly monsoon, as a surface wind, to the 

 east of Sumatra. Thus, the "southwest monsoon" of the China sea and the western Pacific, 

 and which extends to the shores of Japan, is very commonly displaced from the surface by the 

 main current of southeasterly wind, especially to the eastward of Sumatra. Thus, the "south- 

 west monsoon" of the China sea and the western Pacific, and which extends to the shores of 

 Japan, is very often displaced from the surface by the subsidence of the main current of south- 

 easterly wind, more especially in the regions near the Asiatic coast. 



UNIVERSALITY OF THE LAW OF STORMS. 



The law of rotation and progression in storms, as developed on the Atlantic ocean, which 

 was substantially discovered by the present writer in September of the year 1821, is essentially 

 cosmical or world-wide in its origin and application. This soon became apparent in examining 

 the accounts of gales which are found in the voyages of Cook, Vancouver, and others, in the 

 several oceans and climatory zones of our globe. Hence, the polar relations of the phenomena 

 presented are necessarily changed in the southern hemisphere, where, in all our relative com- 

 parisons, south must be substituted for north ; east and west remaining the same. 



This similarity of polar relations in the winds of the two hemispheres, and the corresponding 

 influence on the barometer, which are shown by the opposite cyclonic changes of these winds, 

 are virtually recognized in P. P. King's account of his surveying expedition in the southern 

 hemisphere about the year 1826, as is seen in his sailing directions. The more complete and 

 satisfactory evidence of this cosmical system, or law, of cyclonic action, which is derived from 

 a series of extended geographical observations in the paths of storms in the southern hemis- 

 phere, has since been furnished in the several works of Eeid, Thom, and Piddington. The 

 latter author has also investigated many storms of the sea of Bengal and the Indian ocean, and 

 has noticed various gales, or typhoons, of the China sea. Some of the following notices may 

 serve to increase our knowledge of Asiatic storms, and those of the Pacific ocean, north of the 

 equator : 



CYCLONES OF THE CHINA SEA. 



A cyclone of moderate intensity was experienced by the Mississippi, then flag-ship of the 

 expedition, from the 2d to the 4th of August, 1854, in the harbor of Cum-sing-moon, near 



